street photography

Isolation, Minimalism, Voyeurism, Abandonment

Son of Even More Ancient Street Shots of Los Angeles

Yes it just keeps on going. I THINK all or most of these were taken, as were the rest in this week’s blast from the past, with the Nikon Coolpix 950. Trusty little devil. Between 2000 and 2004. Which is mighty trusty indeed for a first generation digital camera. Solid.

Faces of Ancient Street Shots of Los Angeles

More from the Nikon Coolpix 950. Probably from around 2000 to 2004. I’m like Vivian Maier Lite. Less calories. Less filling. Etc. Please enjoy responsibly.

More, Even Better, Ancient Street Shots of Los Angeles

Again, these images were taken with one of the first great digital cameras, the Nikon Coolpix 950. Probably from around 2000 to 2004. I had so much fun with this camera that twisted the part with the viewfinder from the side with the lens. Twisty little sucker. Like having a viewfinder camera and I don’t know why I remember it being ‘live view.’ Maybe I’m misremembering. Anyway. Yet even more images to come tomorrow.

My Ancient Street Shots of Los Angeles

All of these images predate even my first DSLR, the Nikon D70. These were, believe it or not, taken with one of the first great digital cameras, the Nikon Coolpix 950. Probably from around 2000 to 2004. Yes, I’ve been doing this a long time. More to come.

“Tell Jackie to walk faster… ” – Repost

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Former press secretary in the Kennedy administration Pierre Salinger told a story that shows the late president’s wit when the press secretary came to the Oval Office with a problem. “Mr. President. We’re getting into trouble with women’s groups over the fact that the First Lady is always seen walking three steps behind you.” (paraphrasing there.) The president thought for a moment, then said… well, I guess you can figure it out from here. 😉

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Black and white night shots with the Leica M-E

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The issues shooting the Leica M9/M-E sensor at higher ISOs are well documented. But it should also be well documented that, when shooting black and white, you can forget those noise concerns almost entirely.  I very often will shoot JPEG FINE mode on the b&w setting when I make that decision to shoot b&w. I like the way they look and I always have since my first M9. I’ll tell the story of how I came to love shooting b&w JPEGs straight out of the camera some other time. But I love them. And at 18 megapixels in b&w, how much image data do you need? That was my attitude three years ago and it’s still my attitude today. Much more on that sometime soon.

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Man stalks the urban jungle… (repost)

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I always feel like somebody’s watching me

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Frappuccino Pirates – Reposted

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Girl Not on Bike – Repost

20130426-L1012827Have to be very careful what I call my blog entries lest I incur the wrath of the Internet. 😉

Hooray for Hollywood – Repost

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At any moment, it will always still be the 1920s in Hollywood. The light will never change. There’s nothing like the light in California. Throw on the right costume on the right bodice and hit the DNG with the right vintage black and white filter and anyone can be Mary Pickford. If only for a moment. The girl with the tattoo? That’s another story entirely.

Untitled: Pico Blvd, Santa Monica – Reposted

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Contemplations on a Tree – Again!

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Camera Corner – Repost

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I shot an M7 with tons of drug store film for two years, scanned the negatives with a Plustek scanner. I think that impacts or influences my choices in post processing. Images like this look a lot like some of my film scans in similar light. Colors are maybe a little punchier. They don’t, at all, look like or remotely even remind me of the color results I got from my M9.

You’d have to ask the manufacturer of the camera as to why that might be. 😉

There seems to be so much mystery surrounding this subject in terms of clear and exact information from Leica. But that’s okay. I don’t care.  For the most part, I remain very happy with the color results I get from my M-E. Every once in a while I seem to run up against a dead end where I can’t seem to shake the weird color casts, but that’s actually rather a rare occurrence. Happy times!

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All That Thing Called Green – Repost

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All That And He Reads Books, Too. Reposted!

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An Excellent Adventure – Reposted for April’s Fools

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Suggested Captions:

3. Please keep it down, ladies. People are trying to shop.

4. Is that P-Diddy?

5. I’m going to need a bigger Coke.

And as usual, someone watching me… repost!

The image above is mine. The words are William Klein’s but I can certainly identify with them . He says this in an amazing contact sheet analysis film I’ve included below.

Everyone with an interest in photography should watch it and should look on YouTube for other contact sheet discussions by photographers like Sebastião Salgado and Josef Koudelka.

As always, thank you for looking.

Minimalist Mondays : Voyeurism

“The basic condition of the voyeuristic scenario is distance, an essential separation between seer and seen. Despite this distance, which is by definition unbridgeable, despite the unrequitable nature of the desire that drives it, the voyeur’s gaze is a privileged one.”

Great book I highly recommend called Train Your Gaze: A Practical and Theoretical Introduction to Portrait Photography by Roswell Angier. The quote above is from TYG. Almost by anyone’s definition it is not a book on portrait photography. It is really an analysis of contemporary art photography as well as some of the classic but nevertheless quite daring, in their time, 20th century photographers.

The chapter on voyeurism begins with a quote by Walker Evans, certainly an idol of mine and countless other photographers.

“Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.”

Repost: Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 8/24/14

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Add Media: Repost from Sept 2014

L1062986-EditWe all see the button there. Imploring us to choose what we should post. What we should reveal to the world about the state of our art, work, and minds. I have probably a hundred images in my media library that were uploaded with the intentions of being shown but then something stopped me.

Usually it’s not just ambivalence about the image itself. But there’s a lot of that. I think what holds me up more than anything else is the matter of sequencing the images as a group which I think is always so key as to how they will or even should be seen or perceived. That is the hard part. And when images don’t go or make sense with other images, and in my case that’s probably most of them, it’s very hard to find a way to post them that works in my head.

Believe it or not. lol. But this blog has always been a reflection of those kinds of choices and rejections. I have to try to let go of that for a bit because I’m uploading now so many images to my WordPress media library that I am NOT using that I’m losing track of whatever plans I had for them or weak grip I had on something called organization.

So the point is, I suppose, to look for a lot of images and posts with images that don’t necessarily look like they should go together. At best. And thank you everyone who follows this blog and who ‘likes’ my posts or comments. I very much appreciate each and every one of you.

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